A sound, thoughtful and thoroughly interesting work… written with force and fury --New York Times

Mr. Maltz has taken a theme of central importance to our time and treated it with a large-minded wisdom that can never go out of date. Few novels have greater reward than this --New York Herald Tribune

Despite being decorated with a German Service Cross, Willi Wegler is inwardly sickened by both Hitler’s genocidal war and the complicity of his fellow citizens in Third Reich brutalities. Wracked by guilt, he suddenly betrays his country in a profound gesture of protest and self-sacrifice: during the course of an air raid, he fashions an enormous arrow out of hay in an open field, then ignites it as a flaming signal to direct British bombers to the site of the factory where he works – an act that cannot fail to precipitate a series of dramatic events.

The Cross and the Arrow – first published in 1944, during the latter stages of the war it describes – portrays a man’s struggle to retain his dignity in defiance of state-sponsored cruelty and explores the role and responsibility of the individual in the face of tragic global events. In its examination of an enemy’s complex heroism, it provides a life-affirming message of humanity’s ultimate capacity for good.

Contains an introduction by Patrick Chura, Distinguished Professor, University of Akron.

About the Imprint: Calder Publications was founded by John Calder in 1949, and became known for the edgy and avant-garde writers it was proud of having in its list. Calder Publications, an imprint of Alma Books, offers a list of books which will challenge and stimulate the serious readers.

Albert Maltz (1908–85) was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of entertainment-industry professionals who were blacklisted for their involvement with the Communist Party USA and cited for contempt by Congress. He is best remembered today for his novels A Tale of One January and A Long Day in a Short Life.